Administrative Law › Securities Law › Civil Procedure

Supreme Court Unanimously Limits SEC’s Ability To Bring Civil Penalty Claims For Conduct Older Than Five Years

In Gabelli v. SEC, a unanimous Supreme Court held that the statute of limitations for “penalty” claims in governmental enforcement actions begins to run from the date of the underlying violation of the law, not when the...more

Stop! In The Name Of ... 28 U.S.C. §2462

On January 8, 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in Gabelli v. Securities and Exchange Commission, No. 11-1274, concerning when the clock begins to run on the five-year statute of limitations for civil penalty...more

Orrick's Financial Industry Week in Review - January 7, 2013

In This Issue: *Financial Industry Developments - OCC Guidance on Transition Periods under Section 716 of the Dodd-Frank Act - CFTC Reporting of Swap Transactions and Swap Dealer Registration - Department...more

BLG Monthly Update for January 2013

Pot-smoking teens, ownership of e-mail, insider trading on false info -- all this and more in the BLG Monthly Update for January 2013!...more

NCUA Files Its Largest MBS Suit To Date

On December 17, the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) announced a lawsuit on behalf of four insolvent credit unions against a mortgage securitizer in which the agency alleges violations of federal and state...more

Court Dismisses Chamber of Commerce and ICI Lawsuit Over Amendments to CFTC Rule 4.5

On Wednesday, December 12, the United States District Court for the District of Columbia dismissed a joint U.S. Chamber of Commerce (the Chamber) and Investment Company Institute (ICI) lawsuit against the Commodity Futures...more

U.S. District Court Rebuffs ICI Challenge To CFTC Rule 4.5 Amendments

On December 12, 2012, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia released its decision in Investment Company Institute v. U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, rebuffing the Investment Company Institute (ICI)’s...more

Can CalPERS Be Sued In Federal Court Or Perhaps Even New York State Court?

The California Public Employees’ Retirement System began lending securities in the early 1980s. Since the early 1990s, CalPERS has used the Master Securities Loan Agreement (MSLA) originally developed by the former Bond...more

CFTC Approves Appeal of Position Limit Decision

The CFTC approved an appeal of the September 28, 2012 federal district court decision that vacated the agency’s position limits rule based on a finding that the agency had neglected to first find that the limits were...more

Gabelli v. SEC,

Brief Of The CATO Institute As Amicus Curiae In Support Of Petitioners

Statutes of limitations exist for good reason: Over time, evidence can be corrupted or disappear, memories fade, and companies dispose of records. Moreover, people want to get on with their lives and not have legal battles...more

Orrick's Financial Industry Week in Review - November 12, 2012

In This Issue: Financial Industry Developments - Federal Reserve Board Launches 2013 Capital Planning and Stress Testing Program - Joint Agency Guidance on Regulatory Capital Rulemakings - Rating Agency...more

Motions to Dismiss FHFA’s Claims in Two Actions Granted in Part and Denied in Part

In two separate orders, Judge Cote of the Southern District of New York granted in part and denied in part motions to dismiss claims brought by the FHFA arising out of Fannie Mae’s and Freddie Mac’s alleged purchase of (1)...more

S-O-X Protects Only Public Company Whistleblowers, Or Does It?

DOL’s View - Thomas Spinner was a CPA whose firm provided accounting and audit services to a public company. Spinner’s accounting firm was not publicly-traded. A month after being assigned to audit the pubic company,...more

Federal Courts Bars Extraterritorial Application of Dodd-Frank’s Anti-Retaliation Provision to Whistleblowers Employed Abroad

In Asadi v. G.E. Energy (USA), LLC, a federal district court in Texas held that Dodd-Frank’s anti-retaliation protections for SEC whistleblowers do not apply to employees stationed abroad. Although the Asadi holding may not...more

Extraterritoriality Blues: UK, Japan, EU Warn CFTC on Swaps Regulation

Regulators in the UK, Japan, and the EU are demanding that the CFTC scale back extraterritoriality rules that would broaden American oversight of the $640 trillion swaps market....more

Sprint Offers Unlimited Data, But Not for Shareholders: KPMG Documents Prepared for the PCAOB Mostly Privileged Under SOX

On October 10, 2012, a federal district judge in Missouri granted in part and denied in part class action plaintiffs’ motion to compel certain documents that KPMG had supplied to the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board...more

Does the Government Have a Perpetual Statute of Limitations?

The United States Supreme Court has just granted a writ of certiorari to decide whether the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) has, in essence, a perpetual statute of limitations in cases arising out of alleged...more

Supreme Court to Resolve Split on Timing for SEC Penalty Actions

Today, the Supreme Court granted a petition for certiorari in Gabelli v. Securities and Exchange Commission (11-1274). In the appeal from a Second Circuit opinion, the Court will decide whether a governmental claim for...more

Why “Independent Legal Counsel” Is A Splendid Lie

The 1735 edition of Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels includes a frontpiece portrait of Capt. Lemuel Gulliver. Beneath the portrait is a Latin phrase – Splendide Mendax. This phrase is a snippet from the Roman Poet...more

ESOP Legal News - August 2012 • Volume 1, Number 4

In This Issue: District Court Allows ESOP Participants to Amend Complaint to Add Spouse of Trustee as Defendant; Department of Labor Files Action Seeking to Recover Losses Suffered by Participants; Secretary of Labor...more

Power Struggle? The CFTC/FERC Jurisdictional Split under Dodd-Frank

In early July, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) jointly adopted final regulations (“Products Definition”) that further define the terms “swap” and...more

Court: Bank's Redemption of Trust Preferred Securities Due to Dodd-Frank Changes Is OK

Wells Fargo has won a pair of precedent-setting victories connected to the passage of the Dodd-Frank Act, which are important to all financial institutions that issued, and have recently been considering redeeming, trust...more

Wells Notices May Not Compel Disclosure, at Least for Now

On June 21st, Judge Paul Crotty largely denied a motion to dismiss in Richman v. Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (S.D.N.Y.), private litigation surrounding the same CDOs that were the subject of the SEC’s famous enforcement action...more

Southern District of New York Applies Dodd-Frank Section 929A Retroactively

The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York recently addressed the question of whether Section 929A of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (the Dodd-Frank Act) applied retroactively...more

Takeover Panel Issues Consultation on Removal of Residency Requirement from the Code

The Code Committee of the Takeover Panel (the Panel) has issued a consultation paper proposing amendments to the jurisdiction test that determines whether a company is subject to the Takeover Code (the Code)....more